Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Wonder Years’ On ABC, A Remake Of Sorts About A Black Family In 1968 Birmingham, Alabama

One of the smartest things ABC did when they decided to remake The Wonder Years with a Black family at its center was to hand the show to veteran TV writer Saladin K. Patterson. He didn’t want to make a Black version of Fred Savage’s Kevin Arnold and his L.A.-based family; he wanted to make a new family living in his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama in 1968. So, in a lot of ways, it’s a whole new thing. But is it The Wonder Years?

THE WONDER YEARS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: As we see a kid riding a bike, we hear a narrator (Don Cheadle) saying, “Growing up, my mom and dad gave me ‘the police talk,’ about how to handle yourself around cops. There was a presidential election that created a racial divide, and there was a flu pandemic that they said would kill a million people around the world. But, it was 1968. That’s the state our country was in.”

The Gist: The narrator is a grown-up version of 12-year-old Dean Williams (Elisha Williams); in 1968, he’s living in a middle-class Black neighborhood in Birmingham, Alabama, with his family. Dean is the youngest member of the Williams family, and he’s finding that being the last in a line of achievers is difficult. His dad, Bill (Dulé Hill), is a music professor by day, smooth funk musician by night. His mom, Lillian (Saycon Sengbloh), has a degree from Tuskegee University. His big sister Kim (Laura Kariuki) is a popular cheerleader. His older brother, unnamed right now, was a star athlete who is currently serving in Vietnam.

Dean and his best friend, Cory Long (Amari O’Neil), go to an integrated school across town, and their white friend Brad Hitman (Julian Lerner) wants his baseball team to play Dean and Cory’s team in a scrimmage. But first there was the matter of being introduced to Dean’s longtime crush, Kesia Clemmons (Milan Ray), who is as tough as nails, to which Dean responds, “I dig it.” He’s going to tell her how he feels about her any day now, he thinks to himself, but always chickens out.

When Dean and Cory propose the scrimmage to Cory’s dad, Coach Long (Allen Maldanado), he thinks it’s a bad idea, but Lillian, the “team mom” that Coach Long has a thing for, convinces him that it would be good for both teams. At home, though, Bill thinks a Black team playing a white team is like the Negro Leagues barnstorming all over again. But for the first time in his life, he stands up to his dad.

During the game, Bill and Coach Long give Dean conflicting advice, which leads to Dean striking out a lot and missing easy fly balls. But as Coach Long and Bill start to argue their relative coaching skills, the Williamses find out about the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The 1988-93 original run of The Wonder Years, of course, but crossed with another period piece with a famous voice over, Everybody Hates Chris.

Our Take: This new version of The Wonder Years was created by veteran sitcom writer Saladin K. Patterson (The Big Bang Theory, Psych, Dave, The Last O.G.), based on his upbringing in Montgomery (though it takes place a few years before Williams was born, rather than when he was a kid). When he was asked to remake the classic ABC series to feature a Black family, he didn’t want to make it a straight remake; he wanted the characters to be new and the stories to be based on his and his friends’ and family’s experiences.

In one way, that choice has freed him to tell stories that combine the standard coming-of-age tales we all can relate to with stories about being Black as the civil rights movement came to a head in that tumultuous year. As Cheadle’s opening monologue shows, Patterson isn’t shy about linking issues of race from 53 years ago to what’s going on in 2021; we also see that when one of the ways Bill tells his family to “Be cool” is when they’re stopped by the police.

Unlinking the show from the story of the original series will likely serve it well in the long run; yes, there’s the voice over that wisely contradicts the actions of preteen Dean. And, yes, there is a shocking, dramatic moment at the end of the first episode; it’s just different than the one we saw in the original. Fred Savage directed the pilot with his usual deft touch, which of course creates a spiritual link to the original. But for the most part, this show could have been named something else and it would have been just fine.

It’s one of the reasons why we stated above that it reminded us of Everybody Hates Chris; this “Wonder Years format” has been done with a Black-led series in the past, and that series started out of the gate much funnier, to boot. That’s not to say that this new Wonder Years is an unpleasant watch. But it certainly doesn’t start out with the same blend of comedy and emotional gut-punches the original series did when it debuted after the 1988 Super Bowl. As it finds its own path, though, Patterson’s sturdy cast and well-defined characters should make for a funny, heartfelt series with a message that won’t be hammered over viewers’ heads.

Sex and Skin: None, except for Kim making out with her boyfriend in the car.

Parting Shot: After going to his old schoolyard and seeing Cory making out with Kesia, Dean returns home. “Our family plays that day over and over in our minds, but for different reasons,” says grown up Dean. For each of us, it felt like the world around us changed forever. But thankfully for each of us, the world on the inside hadn’t.”

Sleeper Star: Laura Kariuki plays Kim, and her character is going to rebel like Olivia d’Abo’s character did in the original, though here, Kim will be more involved with the Black Panthers and their activism rather than become a hippie.

Most Pilot-y Line: It was a little on the nose to have white parents from the other team be the ones to tell the Williamses and Coach Long about MLK’s assassination.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The new version of The Wonder Years doesn’t try to be like the original, and that’s a good thing. It doesn’t have the impact the original one had, but we’re confident that it’ll follow its own comedic path and become one of the better network comedies.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream The Wonder Years On ABC.com

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